1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the visual presentation of a simulator device. More particularly, the present invention relates to the detection and definition of the head and eye position of a person utilizing a vehicle simulator which provides a visual presentation of a view outside the vehicle. In even greater particularity, the invention may be described as a measurement device for inputting head and eye position data to a simulator from which a visual presentation in accordance with such data may be generated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the technology of flight simulation has progressed, the ability to more completely train aviators without the expenditure of costly fuel or aircraft time has experienced a concurrent rise. The internal cockpit simulation has long been a matter of duplication which provides the trainee with a transferred feeling of familiarity when he reaches the aircraft. To a degree, motion can be used to simulate the aircraft environment. The most dramatic and most difficult simulation is the outside the cockpit visual presentation.
Employed in this aspect of simulation have been a host of representations of the world as seen in flight, including everything from cartoonish films to TV cameras slaved to the trainee's head. Head position indicators have undergone their own evolution from direct measurement potentiometers attached to helmets to electronic field effect devices, to light beam and mirror systems. Generally the head position can be determined or the eye position can be determined, but to define the field of view of the trainee and concentrate the video presentation effort into that area, the knowledge of both head and eye position simultaneously and rapidly is required.